California Briefing / Los Alamos

SUV crashes and burns, killing six

Five foreign students studying in San Francisco were among six people killed in a fiery crash on Highway 101 in northern Santa Barbara County, authorities said Friday.

The students -- from France, Russia and Turkey -- were in a sport utility vehicle that veered off the road, slammed into a cottonwood tree and burst into flames Thursday night.

The driver, Jeanne Ostrowski of France, 19, survived.

Officials said that the foreign students killed were in their 20s and that a 30-year-old U.S. citizen from San Francisco also was killed.

The SUV was traveling south when Ostrowski drifted into the dirt median and lost control, said Sgt. Ben Ruth of the California Highway Patrol. Ostrowski then veered off the road and crashed. No other vehicles were involved. Ruth said that a witness helped Ostrowski out of the burning SUV and that she was hospitalized in serious condition.